Carole Mortimer - A Rogue And A Pirate

‘Dad, of course, and a partnership in a hotel chain they’re both interested in,’ Brian chuckled. ‘The two of them met while Dad was in the States a few months ago. Of course your head has been too filled with wedding plans to be interested in the dry old family business, otherwise you would probably have heard all about him.’

Caitlin deliberately took the time to sip her sherry, not wanting her brother to see just how curious she was about the man who had been able to talk her father into a partnership in anything. ‘Tell me now,’ she invited softly, her eyes narrowing as Rogan made her mother giggle like a schoolgirl. Her mother never giggled !

‘Self-made man—they’re always the toughest kind,’ her brother said matter-of-factly. ‘He’s made a bundle over the years in property speculation.’

‘That doesn’t tell me anything about the man except that he’s clever and shrewd,’ she bit out. And she needed to know all there was to know about Rogan McCord, needed all the ammunition she could get.

‘Sister dearest, you shouldn’t want to know any more about the man; you’re getting married on Saturday.’

‘Brian!’ his wife admonished as Caitlin blushed. Beth was a tiny blonde woman with warm brown eyes and a bubbly personality. ‘Caity was merely interested. I must say I’m a little curious myself,’ she added pointedly.

‘Elizabeth O’Rourke, behave yourself!’ her husband scowled.

Beth chuckled. ‘I never realised what a jealous husband I was getting when I married a reformed rake!’

Caitlin shared in the humour at her brother’s expense. Brian hadn’t just been wild in his youth, he had been untameable, always smashing up his cars, their father always warning that this would be the last time—before he replaced the car yet again. Caitlin smiled as she remembered the parties Brian used to go to that lasted weeks rather than a single evening. And the women——! Even Brian had stopped counting them.

And then he had met Caitlin’s school friend Beth. He seemed to change overnight, sure that a sweetly beautiful girl like Beth wouldn’t want a hell-raiser in her life. The month after they first met, Beth being eighteen to his twenty-seven, they had been married. Three years later they were happier than ever, and Caitlin’s nephew, three-month-old Matthew, had completed that happiness.

Brian was a changed man, had joined their father in his considerable business interests as his assistant, and was now the successor their father had always wanted him to be. Caitlin didn’t doubt that Brian was also a more contented man.

‘You knew exactly what you were getting when you married me,’ Brian said drily in answer to his wife’s taunt. ‘You realised the night I asked you to marry me and your old friend Jake asked you to dance and then held you too close for my liking.’

‘Poor Jake saw stars for hours after you hit him!’ Beth looked at her husband with indulgent affection.

‘He was lucky to be able to see at all with that black eye,’ Caitlin chuckled. ‘I didn’t appreciate having my date walking around looking like a panda all night because my brother acted like a caveman!’

‘You told me you didn’t like him that much, anyway,’ Brian dismissed. ‘You were just looking for a chance to get away from him.’

‘I could hardly walk out on him after you’d hit him!’ she pointed out drily.

‘He should have kept his hands to himself,’ Brian glowered at the memory.

‘He did, you were the one that didn’t,’ Beth scolded. ‘And stop changing the subject——’

‘Me?’ he said incredulously. ‘You were the one——’

‘He’s just trying to avoid telling us about Rogan McCord,’ Beth told Caitlin knowingly.

‘What’s to tell?’ Brian dismissed impatiently. ‘He’s in his mid-thirties—and handsome as the devil!’

Beth smiled at her husband’s disgruntled expression. ‘So are you, darling.’

He sighed. ‘You’re just trying to humour me now.’

‘Then stop acting like a baby,’ ordered Beth. ‘Is he married?’

‘Rogan?’ he frowned. ‘I don’t know why either of you should be interested in his marital status. You——’

‘Brian!’ Beth prompted firmly.

‘No, he isn’t married,’ he told them irritably. ‘Really, Beth, I don’t know why——’

‘Good evening.’

Caitlin turned sharply at the sound of that husky interruption, blue eyes clashing with green. She hadn’t noticed Rogan leaving her mother’s side as she and Beth engaged in one of their favourite pastimes, that of winding Brian up, but Rogan was standing all too close. She swallowed hard. ‘Mr McCord,’ she nodded, giving Beth and Brian an accusing look as they crossed the room to join her parents.

‘I believe Rogan will do,’ he drawled. ‘And of course, you’re Caitlin.’

She stiffened. ‘Yes.’

‘I told you we would meet again,’ he told her challengingly.

Her eyes widened. ‘You knew who I was all the time!’

‘Not all the time, no,’ he rasped. ‘But as soon as I heard your name, yes. Your father told me about his beautiful daughter Caity when he was in the States earlier this year. He was quite right about your beauty.’

‘Thank you,’ she accepted tensely.

‘He did forget to mention, however,’ he continued slowly, ‘that you’re also wilful, spoilt—and a liar.’

‘How dare you!’ she gasped.

‘How dare I?’ He raised dark brows, his mouth thinning angrily. ‘The drive that took us all of an hour last night took a mere twenty minutes this evening. Of course I knew that at the time, but I thought I’d let you have your little bit of fun——’

‘You——’

‘Don’t add obscene language to your list of faults,’ he bit out caustically. ‘You were enjoying yourself,’ he shrugged. ‘And so I thought, what the hell? That takes care of wilful and spoilt,’ he rasped. ‘And tonight when I arrived your father told me he and your mother were just having a small family dinner party in honour of their daughter’s wedding on Saturday. I thought he must have two daughters, but no, he told me there’s only his Caity!’ He looked at her disgustedly.

‘So?’ she challenged defiantly.

‘So,’ he was so close the warmth of his breath stirred the feathered fringe above her eyes, ‘where was your engagement ring last night?’

‘I’m not engaged,’ she snapped. ‘My family doesn’t believe in them.’ Mainly because they never knew their partners long enough to bother with them!

‘You didn’t act like a woman about to be married in five days!’

‘ I didn’t act?’ she repeated incredulously. ‘You were the one who kissed me,’ she hissed.

‘And you kissed me right back!’

A guilty flush darkened her cheeks at the truth of that. ‘You took me by surprise——’

‘For fifteen minutes!’ he derided harshly.

‘Rogan, please,’ she looked about them awkwardly, very conscious of where they were, and of her family in the room, even if he wasn’t.

‘Take me outside to look at the garden. Or something,’ he instructed hardly, his eyes narrowed.

‘No, I——’

‘You would rather we continued with our conversation here?’ he mocked tautly.

Brian and Beth were still talking with her parents on the other side of the lounge, but it was only a matter of time before they became curious about the intensity of the conversation between two supposed strangers. ‘All right,’ she agreed irritably. ‘But Graham and his parents will be arriving in a few minutes.’ She hoped!

‘The man you’re going to marry?’ Rogan prompted.

‘Yes,’ she confirmed defensively.

‘I pity the poor bastard,’ Rogan rasped as he accompanied her out on to the terrace that overlooked the gardens. ‘God knows how you’re going to behave after the two of you are married!’